I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wind speed and direction gauging and especially to the use of a visibly detectable floating cloud for this purpose. In particular, the invention relates to the use of a phosphorescent wind indicator that may be used during low-light or nocturnal conditions to indicate wind speed and direction. Known art may be found in U.S. Class 73, Subclasses 170.04 and 170.05 and U.S. Class 116, Subclasses 214 and 264 and other relevant areas.
II. Description of the Known Art
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the strength and direction of the wind during hunting can be critically important given the superior olfactory senses in most game. This information becomes especially important when the hunter must target his quarry at relatively short distances (i.e. when hunting with a bow, muzzleloader or shotgun, or hunting in dense brush or similar conditions, etc.). This information is also important when setting up tree stands and the like for hunting from a fixed location.
Hunters and other sports enthusiasts have heretofore mainly had only makeshift methods and devices available to them for gauging wind speed and direction. This is particularly desirable for hunting purposes, since game downwind from a hunter will avoid the hunter's position if the animals detect the hunter's scent. To avoid detection by the prey, hunters often attempt to monitor the wind and remain downwind therefrom. For bow hunters, in addition to gauging the general ambient conditions of wind speed and direction, it is also important to accurately gauge the particular windage that an arrow will experience when it is shot, since the wind has a significant affect on the trajectory of arrows.
In an attempt to accurately determine the wind speed and direction, meteorologists have used such things as balloons and chemical smoke dispensers which emit smoke which is visually monitored. Variations of such chemical dispensers may be mounted on the barrel of a hunter's rifle or otherwise set up by the hunter. However, chemical odors emitted by these dispensers, along with the odor of smoke, are easily detected by animals. Such odors are easily strong enough to be detected by the animal Consequently, the animals are alerted to the hunter's presence, and move away from the hunter.
In an attempt to generate a wind gauge which animals will not detect, powder-like hydrophobic material, such as unscented raw talc or magnesium trisilicate has been used in an effort to create a wind-borne cloud which the hunter may visually observe. A small amount of the talc material is sprayed into the air by means of a manually operated squeeze bottle. The speed and direction of travel of a cloud created by the dispersed talc is then observed to determine prevailing wind conditions. In actual practice, however, the raw talc settles out of the air relatively quickly and thus drifts only a short distance from the hunter's position. Additionally, the talc cloud is difficult to see. Thus, it is difficult at best for the hunter to actually gauge wind direction and velocity by observing a talc cloud.
It is important for bow hunters to accurately determine the windage which an arrow will experience during the flight to the target. Accuracy is particularly critical, as animals are often alerted to the hunter's presence by the first arrow a hunter shoots, regardless of whether the hunter hits an animal. Because heretofore known powders tend to settle to the ground relatively quickly and are difficult to see, they do not really form an airborne cloud, do not drift far, and once they move away from the point of dispersion hunters can no longer see them. Thus, known windage-gauging powders do not in fact provide hunters with an accurate gauge by which to judge the windage that will act on their arrows.
In addition, many hunters use blinds which they have built either on the ground or elevated from the ground, such as platforms or other such structures secured in trees which may be either temporary or fixed. Elevated blinds are particularly advantageous as most game, and in particular large animals such as deer and the like, are not thought to be upwardly observant, largely concentrating their surveillance to a horizontal line of sight. Thus, although extremely wary by nature, game such as deer are known to frequently walk directly beneath a hunter occupying an elevated blind in a tree.
Regardless of whether the blind is elevated or on the ground, hunters must remain downwind from the game they hunt or the animals will detect the hunter's scent. The animals are wary of unfamiliar scents, and consequently, avoid moving upwind when they sense an unfamiliar scent. Accordingly, hunters often try to monitor the wind direction and maintain a downwind position relative to the prey.
Relatively recently, temporary blinds known as climbing tree stands have become popular. These stands normally permit a hunter to climb up a particular tree for hunting and then to climb back down when finished hunting. These climbing stands may be advantageously deployed the day of a hunt and then redeployed in another locale subsequently. They can be particularly effective for the hunter because they permit the hunter to hunt a particular locale from a variety of adjacent dispositions to enable the hunter to vary his hunting stand as the wind changes direction. For example, a hunter desiring to hunt at a feeding locale would have to have four adjacent fixed stands to adequately cover the one feeding locale to take into consideration wind from a easterly, westerly, northerly or southerly direction. With a climbing stand, the hunter simply deploys the stand in the appropriate downwind location with respect to the feeding locale and only one stand instead of four is required. Of course, knowing the direction the wind is blowing is a prerequisite to appropriately placing such a stand.
For hunters using blinds, the position of the blind is fixed and scents are emitted from the blind and carried downwind. Thus, only those animals upwind from a blind will approach it. To avoid detection by animals downwind from blinds, hunters sometimes use masking scents to conceal their own scent. Such masking scents are familiar to game and consequently do not alert the wary animals. In one attempt to cover their scent, hunters have used a masking scent which permeates the talc powder used in an effort to create a wind gauge. The talc powder absorbs the masking scent, such as acorn, pine, apple, cedar or the like. However, as indicated above, talc powder does not travel far, and accordingly the scented powder does not adequately cover the hunter's scent.
In an attempt to attract animals such as deer to a particular location, such as a blind from which they are hunting, hunters also dispense certain scents along a trail leading to that location. However, leaving a scent trail requires that the hunter physically travel over the trail. The hunter's movement along the trail while physically dispensing the scent may well disturb and frighten animals, and the hunter's own scent is often left on the trail. Consequently, animals are likely to move away from the trail instead of being attracted by the scent dispensed by the hunter.
The known art have proposed solutions to these problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,626 issue to Herschede on Jan. 3, 1984, shows a method for avoiding detection by game animals by scent through establishing wind direction to insure that the hunter is positioned downwind from the animal. In the method, a small quantity of a hydrophobic material such as unscented raw talc powder, which may be mixed with a natural masking scent material, is sprayed into the air in a relatively small cloud by means of a hand-held manually operated squeeze bottle. The direction of travel in the air of the cloud of material may then be used to establish wind direction. The material is such as to be undetectable by smell by the animal, and the size and characteristics of the powder cloud is such as to be visually undetectable by the animal at a distance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,186,118 issued to Stinson on Feb. 16, 1993, shows a fluorescent thermoplastic which is mixed with a silica to form a highly-visible floating powder cloud. The thermoplastic is odorless and easily visible to hunters. Accordingly, a hunter is able to observe the cloud for large distances and accurately gauge the wind direction and velocity. Because the thermoplastic powder is odorless, and because animals are basically colorblind, animals are not alerted by the floating cloud of colored particles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,778 issued to Dexheimer, et al, on Mar. 8, 1994, shows an indicator member is arranged for mounting to a barrel portion of a hunting rifle or to an interior surface of a hunting archery bow to include a boss mounting a filament, wherein the filament indicates wind orientation preventing hunter positioning to be exposed by downwind orientation of game. A hollow supporting boss is arranged to secure the filament and may be further provided with an interior spool to permit projection of the filament therefrom from a magazine support roll.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,550,418 issued to Willaimson on Apr. 22, 2003, shows a refillable receptacle for housing and dispensing a fibrous, windborne material is disclosed. The receptacle includes a closure cap having one or more apertures for dispensing said fibrous material and has a threaded bottom for attachment to, and replacement of, the windage/elevation cap an optical scope. The threaded bottom also allows the device to be attached to an archery bow or bow stabilizer. The bottom of the device may also be adapted so as to allow attachment of the device to pliable articles such as fabric or clothing or to rigid articles such rails or platforms.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,631,800 issued to Keevan on Oct. 14, 2003, shows A dispenser for fibers for use by a sportsman and adapted to be attached to an article of clothing or gear worn by the sportsman. The dispenser is a capsule with a body and a cap with apertures that can be aligned. When the apertures are aligned, fibers can be reached and pulled out of the dispenser in wisps for use by the sportsman.
The known art however fails to address low-light and nocturnal conditions adequately. Since many hunters normally position themselves in locales known to be frequented by their quarry, such as game trials, feeding locations, territorial marking locations and the like, during low-light or nocturnal conditions, it is important to provide a method for ascertaining this important information at these times. This can be especially important when setting up temporary elevated blinds such as a climbing tree stand and the like.
Thus, a perceived need exists in the art for an improved phosphorescent indicator for hunters. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to eliminate the problems inherent with existing known methods and apparatus.